Oran Mor – John Muir Room And

Great location food was average service was just ok

The meal we had in the John Muir was very good. Perfectly cooked and served fresh and hot. Quality of the food was 1st class. Portion sizes were very reasonable and pricing was appropriate

When we arrived, we couldn’t figure out where to enter. There’s a Brasserie entrance and an Oran Mor entrance. We tried the later. Note that I booked a table in the John Muir room thinking that there’d be an entrance that stated that. Anyway, the bouncer who I guess was there for the bar pointed to a door and we entered. It dumped us into the middle of the restaurant/bar area where everyone just sat looking at us. We wandered around a bit until I went to the bar. The bartender took us to the John Muir room where someone came over and seated us. Our waitress didn’t know what the soup of the day was and had to go ask. We chose the side salads which were good with a garlicky olive oil dressing, couscous, romaine and avocado. I got the small order of Red Thai Mussels which was good. It was supposed to come with crusty bread but didn’t. I asked if I could get some and the waitress laughed. She asked if I’d like a side and I said it was supposed to come with it. The bread was brought but it was just toasted white bread not a sturdy bread for sopping up soup. The mussels were very good and I got a lot of them. My partner got the fish and chips which was fried so hard you couldn’t eat the crust. She dug the fish out leaving the shell of fried dough still in shape on her plate. What a disappointment this place was.

The nice surroundings couldn’t save what was an awful meal. It started with no steak pie or haddock being available. Then the wrong starter was brought. I ended up with the Mac ‘n cheese with Cajun chicken which was bland my partner had roast squash which initially didn’t come with any spiced cous cous. When sent back, it came out with a sprinkle of tasteless cous cous added. Generally awful. We were at a gig in the basement venue where the act sang their heart out for an hour and a half for the cost of one of the main courses. Sadly the same effort wasn’t made in the kitchen.

The food was very average and my chicken over cooked. Not a great selection on the menu either. Waitress slammed glass on the table when I asked for some ice. Otherwise loved the decor and ambience.